Join Susan as she obsesses about cosmetic chemistry and other things (some possibly related to monkeys). Often strange, occasionally useful, and always worth a stop as a point of interest on your journey through the Intertron.

Sunday, July 18, 2010

Back to basics: Balms - tweaking the new recipe idea.

As we know, a balm is a product intended to help with a condition of some sort intended to be rubbed in, so we need to modify these recipes to help with some condition. What condition could we choose here? How about sun exposure?

Let's say you've been in the sun a little too long and forgot to re-apply your sun screen. (Yep, that was me on our camping trip! I applied it twice during our visit to the beach, but I guess my shoulders are just too accustomed to being hidden under layers of fabric!) I'll want to use ingredients that offer anti-inflammatory and soothing benefits. Olive oil is a great oil for post-sun exposure and anti-inflammation, so let's include that. Ideally, I'd include aloe, but I can't use that in an anhydrous product, so that's out. But wait! I have aloe oil and aloe butter (with coconut oil) so I could use either as the oil in this recipe. I think I'll go with the aloe and coconut oil as it will offer additional anti-inflammatory properties. I think I'll go with mango butter in this application as it offers some good anti-inflammatory properties as well - plus, it's a little drier with these greasy oils.

What essential oils could I include for soothing and anti-inflammatory properties? Lavender would be a great inclusion and I have a ton of it in the house but there's one small problem...I can't handle the smell of it on my skin (it's fine in a rinse off product), so that won't work. Chamomile is also suggested, but it tends to be kinda expensive. So for the purposes of this balm, let's pretend that I can use lavender essential oil on my skin...

AFTER SUN BALM WITH LAVENDER ESSENTIAL OIL

20% beeswax

25% mango butter

30% olive oil

19% aloe butter (made with coconut oil)

5% cetyl alcohol

1% lavender essential oil

This will be quite a heavy feeling balm courtesy of the olive oil (medium to heavy), coconut oil (heavy) and the mango butter (heavy). You can adjust the balm to feel lighter by using lighter oils.

If I wanted to use fancier oils and butters here, I think babassu would feel just lovely and would offer moisturizing and anti-inflammatory properties, shea butter contains allantoin, which would help with healing and occlusive, and pomegranate oil could offer increased burn and wound healing. The Vitamin E and phytosterol levels of sea buckthorn would make this a great addition to a post-sun exposure balm! And I could use my aloe oil here at up to 10%!

EXOTIC AFTER SUN BALM WITH LAVENDER ESSENTIAL OIL

20% beeswax

25% shea butter

19% babassu oil

10% pomegranate oil

10% sea buckthorn oil

10% aloe oil

5% cetyl alcohol

1% lavender essential oil

This balm will feel much lighter than the balm above thanks to the lighter feeling oils. It will not feel as greasy as these oils - apart from the aloe oil - are a lot drier than the shea butter. If you wanted to use mango, you would get quite a dry feeling balm!

You could adapt these recipes to use the essential oil blend I mentioned in the first post on balms to include 3% menthol, 0.5% cinnamon, 0.5% ginger, 0.5% clove, and 1% eucalyptus to create a sore muscle blend or the 3% menthol, 1% eucalyptus, and 1% camphor blend to make a Vicks type blend for your feet or sinuses.

As usual, I'm just a girl who likes to play in the workshop, so join me tomorrow for a more complicated balm!

Well hey! I am loving the idea of adding aloe to my lip balm along with arnica (long story, need healing lip ointment)I'm duping a zim's crack crème. I can't figure out how to get aloe into an oil based product without emulsifier. So how did aloe in coconut oil happen??? Is it possible to use the powdered extract in coconut oil? IS there such a thing as aloe oil????

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My e-books

To raise money for our youth groups, I've put together these e-books! If you want to learn more about the books or donate, click on the bolded links!Or click here for a short description of all the e-books!The new e-book is here! Formulating Facial Products! This 399 page e-book is filled with recipes for facial products, including moisturizers, sera, cleansers (oil and surfactant based), scrubs, gels, and more, as well as entries for ingredients like botanical extracts, cosmeceuticals, emulsifiers, thickeners, essential oil, and more, as well as a large appendix about our oils.

Click here to see the table of contents! If you make a $28 donation to our youth programs, we'll send you a copy of this e-book along with the preservatives, oils, butters, and surfactant charts as a thank you for your kind generosity!

Formulating & Creating Lotions! This 224 page e-book is perfect for those of you familiar with lotion making and ready to start creating your own recipes! I've included all the information I know about the HLB system, as well as my base recipes for lotions, creams, body butters, and moisturizers!

Click here to see the table of contents! If you make a $26 donation to my youth programs, I'll send you a copy of this e-book, an HLB calculator in Excel format, and the carrier oil, exotic oil, butter, and preservative comparison charts.

Lotion Making 101. This 305 page book includes everything you wanted to know about the basics of making lotions, including the chemistry of our lotions, ingredients we use, keeping your lotions safe, equipment you might need, and more recipes than I could count! For those of you who don't have the Back to Basics book, I've included all the carrier oil, exotic oil, and butter profiles.

Click here to see the table of contents. If you make a $29 donation to my youth groups, I'll send you along a copy of this e-book as a thank you. I'll also send you a copy of the carrier oil, exotic oil, butter, and preservative comparison charts!

Back to Basics: Anhydrous Products. This 122 page e-book includes over 50 recipes and explanations for making lotion bars, whipped butters, balms, oil based scrubs, bath melts, bath oils, oil based sprays, solid scrubs, and facial sera, as well as all the carrier oil, exotic oil, and butter profiles and everything I've gathered about the chemistry of our oils including fatty acids, mechanisms of rancidity, phytosterols, and polyphenols.

Click to take peek at the Table of Contents. If you make a $25 donation to the groups, I'll send you a copy by e-mail as a thank you!

Click on the links above to learn more about the books. If you already know what you want or want to make a general donation, click the button below! (I'll know which e-book you want by the amount you've donated!) Thank you so much for supporting our youth groups. You have made it possible for us to continue offering our programs and we finally got that sewing machine!

I've had to remove my cell phone number due to a number of calls from people wanting to learn how to make lotion. If you are part of the groups or want more information, please email me or call Community Services at 604 792-4267 to get connected.

Who the heck is Swift?

I'm an aspiring cosmetic scientician and DIY girl interested in pretty much any craft you can name - bookbinding, jewellery making, sewing, paper crafts, polymer clay - but my main passion is bath & body product making.
I am currently obsessed with Rock Band (bass and singing) and science books. Did you know my favourite word is "toaster" and my favourite adjective is "hirsute"?